Broken Strings
by QueenSoledad
Summary: Thirteen young girls have been murdered at a boarding school in England. Now, the world's greatest detective has to infiltrate the school as a teacher to catch the killer. L/OC Pre-Kira Slight AU.


Upon entering the establishment, one wouldn't guess that this boarding school had been the site of thirteen murders over the last two months. However, that first impression was what pegged the place as being somewhat off to L.

Despite the fact that thirteen of their class mates were either missing or confirmed to be dead, the girls around him went about their daily routines with carefree expressions as they laughed and chattered with friends. There wasn't any unease about the teenagers; it was as though students disappearing and being brutally beaten to death was as common place as homework.

As L walked down the busy hallway towards the principal's office he was given numerous looks from the students which varied from confusion to outright disgust. Not only was he a stranger with an incredibly odd appearance, but he was also a male in an all girls' school. The only real reason he'd actually come to the school itself was on request of the police and the school principal. Like most, they had a hard time trusting a computer screen.

Now that he was here, L was somewhat glad to have been able to see the place for himself. The entire atmosphere of the school was unnerving in and of itself; there were observations to made from that alone which he couldn't have drawn from a distance. Judging from the way the girls seemed to hush themselves and turn away when he approached, it was almost as if the entire student body had something it wanted to keep quiet. Or alternatively, they were perfectly normal and he just frightened them.

The principal Victoria Crowe was not a suspect at this time. First of all, she'd only started her job here about a month ago after the old headmistress had quit. Also, she didn't exactly fit the profile he'd compiled so far. The killer was most likely a student, not a member of the staff.

Crowe, by what he'd been able to gather from conferences with her, truly wished nothing more than to be able to help the students and close the case. Her concern for the safety of the girls was genuine, and she was dead set on sending each and every one of them home by the end of the month if the murderer wasn't caught. This, of course, would make L's job a great deal more difficult; the evacuation would be a perfect opportunity for the killer to escape and vanish without a trace.

Seeing as there was no way to persuade Crowe to allow him more time, L had to work with what he could get.

When he stepped into the office, L was immediately greeted by the harsh and unforgiving shrillness of the woman at the front desk. The small nameplate on the desktop read: "Ms. Harris".

"Young man, what on earth do you think you're doing here?! This establishment is privately owned property, if you don't leave the premises I'll have no problem getting the police to drag you away!"

"Excuse me, there seems to be a misunderstanding. I'm the new criminal science teacher." Becoming a teacher hadn't been his first choice of cover, but, aside from a job as a janitor, there were few other ways for him to successfully infiltrate an all girls' school without raising any more suspicion than he normally did.

"So you're Matthew Lawson?" Harris said with an eyebrow raised as she looked the youth up and down. "Why haven't I seen you here before?"

L, expecting this of course, didn't miss a beat. "I was unable to visit the school myself before now due to business out of the country. I was, however, able to speak with Headmistress Crowe online and over the phone several times in order to schedule this meeting."

"Were you now?" the older woman replied, clearly not believing a single word he uttered. "Let me just call Ms. Crowe and tell her you're here."

L bit down his annoyance at woman's need to use a telephone in order to speak with someone just one room away as Ms. Harris lifted the black, corded machine to her ear.

Harris's face slowly went from cocky, to confused, and then to a look of sour defeat in all of ten seconds. L was then allowed to see Crowe.

Victoria was a rather plain woman in her early forties with mouse brown hair and gray eyes. She was kind of obviously new to her job, but she seemed competent enough. The school had been in a bit of a hurry to find a replacement after the last headmistress had basically run out the front door of the building screaming when she'd found the bludgeoned body of one of the victims. Crowe had attended the school herself as a teenager and had wanted to do what she could to save the place; however, she had very little hope that anything could be done at this point.

Once the door was shut and the detective was alone, Crowe said in a low voice, "So the world's greatest detective is just some kid? Well, I suppose I really am that desperate." she made a broad, gesture in mockery of something grand toward the seat in front of her desk. "Pull up a chair, Mr. Lawson."

L perched himself atop the chair in his usual fashion prompting a raise of the eyebrow from the principal, but nothing more.

"When we spoke over the phone we were able to discuss most of the details of my cover here, but I'd like to be able to know what I'm really headed into before I begin to investigate." L inquired.

"Assuming you are who I'm really looking for, you are going to start your cover job tomorrow. I'll write down your classroom and any important times you may need to know for you. The actual teacher, Mr. Evans, was kind enough to prepare all of the assignments and what the class will be learning each day for you in advance, so basically all you'll have to do is hand out papers and answer any questions as well as you can. Mr. Evans was more than happy to have the extra vacation time.

"You'll be living in the staff dormitory with the other teachers, as we discussed." Crowe glanced at his attire. "And you will also have to dress with a bit more formality to maintain a certain level of professionalism."

"Duly noted." L replied, biting the end of his thumb as he spoke. "You said before that you'd prepared the files you have on the prime suspects of the investigation."

"Yes, I got all the information I could on those three girls. However, there's not much more I can tell you than what you already saw on the surveillance footage. You'll have to speak to the girls themselves." Crowe pulled a few manila folders from her desk and handed them to him.

The three students in question were Regina Swan, Elise King, and April Garcia.

Miss Swan was by all accounts a very charismatic and popular girl amongst her peers. Not the best or worst in any of her classes, but she had an ability to turn people over to her way of thinking which had been the source of most of the success in her short life. She'd also been seen by three other students walking around the Southern garden at eleven o' clock on the night of the first murder.

After watching the girl's activities in her dorm room for two weeks, L hadn't seen her study or complete a single assignment. Aside from that, her activities were relatively typical of girls her age.

Elise King's most noticeable quality was her talent as a violinist. She'd scored a superior rating at seventeen regional competitions in the last four years and had three offers for full scholarships to the top schools in England. The only reason anyone had to suspect her was the fact that she'd been seen out of her dorm around the times of three of the murders.

Surveillance hadn't revealed much on her either, only that she seemed to have a tendency to practice her instrument until one o'clock in the morning.

Garcia was the most likely among the suspects. A quiet girl who was failing nearly half of her classes and had been seen out side her dorm on the night of nearly every single killing. She would've been brought into custody by now if the surveillance cameras hadn't given her an alibi for most of the murders. Every night the girl would leave her dorm at seven o'clock, and then return approximately one hour before the actual killing took place.

Each of the victims had been brutally beaten with a long, iron object, perhaps a pipe. The killer had a tendency to smash her target's face to a point at which it was nearly beyond all recognition, but the victims themselves had no connection to each other.

L had very little to go on until he was able to interrogate the suspects. So, as of the moment he consented to taking the small post it note with his classroom number on it and trying his best not to get lost in the massive building.

Tomorrow, the real investigation would begin.

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**A/N:**

**I don't own Death Note and all that nonsense!**

**I realize this may be confusing, but stay with me for now! I will answer any questions as best as I can without revealing too much if you review, though. This first chapter is shorter, but later updates will be much longer, I promise.**


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